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TANAPA
[Flora and Fauna]
A very high level of emdemism (endemic, is the term for organisms confined to a certain locality and found nowhere else in the world) is in fact what characterises the mountains in the Eastern Ark.
The Udzungwa Mountains are extremely rich in endemic species. There are as many as three endemic primates in the area: Two diurnal primates; the Uhehe red Colobus and the Sanje crested Mangabey (both on the IUCN red list) and the nocturnal Matundu galago, discovered in 1996.
Likewise botanists have recently discovered several endemic plants. These high numbers of endemic species in the Udzungwa forest was one of many reasons for the Tanzanian government to establish the Udzungwa Mountains National Park in 1992.
PARK ATTRACTIONS:
The major attraction is its biologically diverse and unique forest. The park harbours plants species found nowhere else in the world.
It is accommodating ten species of primates including:- Sanje crested mangabey and Iringa (Uhehe) red colobus monkeys, which are endemic.
Although difficult to see the area also contains population of Elephants, Buffaloes, Lion, Leopard, African hunting dog, Abbot duiker, Red duiker, Blue dicker, Bushbuck, Eland, Bush pig, Honey badger, Civet, Hippopotamus, Sable, Klipspringer, Pangolin, Mongoose, squirrel Hyrax and others.
The forest is rich bird habitat with several endemics like Udzungwa partridge and Rufous winged sunbird
The park has spectacular scenery with rainforest, wooded grassland, rock faces, rivers and waterfalls. Sanje waterfalls being one of the attractive features of the park drops in three stages at height of 200m, 40m and 70m from the bottom respectively.